What does Aleix Vidal’s injury mean for Barcelona in the UCL ?
Aleix Vidal’s horrific injury has resulted in the loss of one more defender for Barcelona adding to their defensive woes , with a Champions League match against PSG in 2 days.
Barcelona right back Aleix Vidal will be missing football action for a span of about 5 months after dislocating his ankle in Barcelona’s 0-6 win against Alaves on Saturday .
The Spanish collided with Alaves’ Theo Hernandez towards the closure of the match , with Barca cruising on a 0-6 lead, and came out of the collision in a lot of pain having noticed the extent of damage that was done to his ankle. The physios rushed to the field and on examining the injury immediately called for a stretcher .
Barcelona confirmed that Vidal would spend the night at the hospital before revealing that his season was over and would be sidelined for at least 5 months.
It was after a long time that Aleix Vidal was given a chance to start by Luis Enrique , that too against Alaves . In the third gameweek of the season , Barcelona lost 2-1 against Alaves and Vidal was made the scapegoat after which started his nightmare.
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Vidal did not play a single minute from Gameweek 3 to Gameweek 17 . He went 14 matches in La Liga without playing , 9 times not in the squad , 2 times because of injury , once because he was allowed the weekend off to get married and twice on the bench. But once again , another trough for Vidal this season came against Alaves .
Barca’s Argentinian defender, Javier Mascherano is also injured and a major doubt for the PSG clash . Gerrard Pique also trained separately and didn’t make it to Alaves . This can prove to be costly for Barca as PSG’s attack is in a very good form as was clearly observed in their game against Bordeaux.
Edinson Cavani , Lucas Moura and Julian Draxler have been in excellent form and Di Maria and Ben Arfa are gradually finding the form they were at last season .
Emery also knows Barca very well and knows what are their weaknesses and how to take advantage of them . The Parisians are ready to ” give their 110 % ” against Barcelona in the Champions League Last 16.
With PSG on a run of four wins in a row in all competitions, PSG center back Marquinhos believes they are in good shape to take on the team that knocked them out in the Champions Leauge in 2012/13 and 2014/15 .
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When PSG captain Thiago Silva was asked about the clash against Barcelona on Tuesday , this is what he said , ” We know that we didn’t get the most straight-forward of draws. But when you have ambitions in the Champions League, you have to be able to beat any side that is put in your way. When the draw was made, I spoke to Neymar on the phone and we joked about the fact that we would once again be crossing paths in the Champions League. They have a favourable record against us, that’s true, but I think we have what it takes to beat them. Above all, we need to get a good result at home and keep a clean sheet.”
Silva even pinpointed the fact that Emery has coached against Barca several times and will be able to pinpoint their weakness to the team . Adding to this , he also said ” I think we’re better equipped than we have been in our recent matches against Barcelona. Against a team like that, you quite simply have to have a perfect match, playing your best football and giving your absolute all. We know that our objective is to qualify for the quarter-finals.”
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Playing Barcelona is always a massive occasion for the Parisians and if they manage to beat the Catalans , they will be full of confidence for what comes next.